steven o'donnell

Wednesday night State Police invited the public to tell them how to do their jobs better. More than 70 community members showed up at Roger Williams University's Providence campus to engage in that dialog. Police brutality was a top issue, but participants pointed to the bigger issue: racism.

Cranston Mayor Allan Fung is opposing the immediate release of a State Police review that found "deep problems" within the Cranston Police Department, including complaints about political interference by Fung and his staff.

Some good news for Ocean State motorists: Driving fatalities are at an all time low in Rhode Island.

That’s the word from Atty. Gen. Peter Kilmartin, who announced today that road deaths dropped from 65 in 2013 to 52 in 2014. That’s a continuation of the decline in fatalities, from a high of 104 in 2003. The 2014 numbers are the lowest number of road fatalities since 1994.

Most encouraging, perhaps, is the drop in deaths of young drivers aged 16 to 24. Deaths for this age group have dropped from 22 in 2009 to eight in 2014.

For once, Rhode Island politicians have a chance at being part of the solution. Even a small change on gun violence would resonate with voters.

As recently as the 2012 election campaigns, the issue of gun control had fallen off the political shelf. A Republican Party dominated by the states of the sunbelt and the Old Confederacy feverishly defended the rights of the gun lobby. Rueful Democrats, especially those in Red states, bowed cravenly to the gun constituency that was universally cited as the club that doomed Al Gore’s 2000 presidential aspirations.